Need Help: Aggressive Six-line Wrasse

[b-diddles]

I need help. I just bought a Fridmani Dottyback about a 4 days ago and my six-line will not leave him alone. I thought it might be normal about two days ago the wrasse pecked on him a couple of times when the dottyback would come out and he would go back in the rock and hide. Now, he will not let him out to eat at all. As soon as he see's him he almost violently darts at him. I always add fish with lights off and leave off till the next day. I have had the 6 line for about 3-4 months now. He is awesome in every other way but this way. I really like this dottyback too just wish I could see him more. In order to do that the wrasse needs to lay off. What should I do If I desire to keep all the fish AND keep them from fighting? I know a solution would be to make a decision on letting one go but, I like all my fish and this is a LAST RESORT. Please, any advise?

 

[nicetry]

My experience with six lines (and I've kept a few) is that they have the potential to be little tyrants and can harm/kill other fish. My sense is that the wrasse will pester the dottyback to death, literally. I had the same experience with a six line and a sankey's dottyback. They were fine together for a short time but the wrasse then began demonstrating the same behavior as yours and was relentless. It would hover over a hole in a rock where the dottyback hid, and attack it at every chance, preventing it from even coming out to eat. This behavior won't likely subside so you will need to remove one of them. Rearranging the rocks is not going to help either, as I'm sure someone will suggest it. This isn't about territory. The wrasse has singled out the dottyback and will likely kill it sooner than later. I won't own another sixline for this reason.

 

[b-diddles]

What yours is doing is EXACTLY what mine is doing right now. He is in a cove and will not let him out or he nails him. I guess I might have to get rid of him.

 

[btldreef]

I had a sixline kill a mandarin in my tank, as well as stress out many other fish. If they're not added last, they can cause absolute chaos in your tank. I agree with the poster above, the sixline will eventually stress the dottyback so much and kill it.
The problem is that they're really hard to catch, I was lucky enough to finally get mine stuck in the overflow. Brought him as a "gift" to my LFS, within 10 days the sixline had killed fish in every tank the LFS tried to put him in. The owner told me he gave it away free to someone with a big tank, I still think he fed it to the shark tank.

 

[florida joe]

I have the sixline from hell. when I introduced my orchid dotty (Fridmani) my sixline went right at him. I did not see the orchid for months (yes months) and he reappeared one day. And they now coexists

 

[jth]

these are just not peaceful fish. He has killed one of my neon gobies and I think he might have killed a second. Now he is targeting my lawnmore blenny but my blenny is one tough dude and is kicking his agressive tail. If I catch him he is going in my bully tank with a yellow tail blue damsel and a yellow tang.
I will never buy another sixline.

 

[b-diddles]

Won't ever buy another one. He was one AWESOME fish untill I bought the last two and boom. I had to take ALL my rock out to catch him too. Little bugger. Now I have to try to be creative again.

 

[johnr2604]

Six lines are the devil LOL. I noticed you have a 55 in your profile. If you want wrasses that are more docile look into fairies and flashers. There are some very nice wrasses in those groups.